Many transmission signals use a variety of feed or power division structures to provide a signal to one or more transmission lines. These structures each have advantages and disadvantages as they seek to balance the power division, phase control and impedance matching functions. Depending on the application, a given power division structure may be highly effective at one of these parameters but at the expense of another parameter, characteristic of behavior.
Recently, millimeter wave applications have emerged that impose ambitious goals on system design, including the ability to generate desired beam forms at a controlled direction while avoiding interference among the many signals and structures of the surrounding environment. The millimeter wave spectrum provides narrow wavelengths in the range of ˜1 to 10 millimeters that are susceptible to high atmospheric attenuation and have to operate at short ranges (just over a kilometer). Millimeter wave applications such as 5G and autonomous vehicles depend on advanced sensing and detection under challenging conditions. Current solutions do not meet the power division capabilities required.